


'cause we're the afterlife

by queenwithoutacrown



Category: Daredevil (TV), The Punisher (TV 2017)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-23
Updated: 2017-11-23
Packaged: 2019-02-06 02:13:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,583
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12807384
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/queenwithoutacrown/pseuds/queenwithoutacrown
Summary: "Can you imagine having the guts to marry the Punisher?"





	'cause we're the afterlife

**Author's Note:**

> I started this before TP so it's not really canon-compliant anymore, set in some vague timeline in the future. I wanted to try something a little different, I hope you do still enjoy it :)

Sometimes, stories see the light of day only by accident. One domino stone starts a chain reaction and suddenly all hell breaks loose.

It goes hand in hand, circumstances beyond anybody's control.

Like now.

 

  
-

 

  
It starts something like this.

 

  
-

 

 

Paul Davis, a passionate student of architecture is procrastinating his project like nobody's business. After cleaning his whole apartment, doing the laundry for himself and both his roommates, including driving them up the wall with his annoying pacing, he still needs something to occupy his mind with.

So he offers to walk their old neighbour's equally old dog. As long as he doesn't have to stare at his laptop. Or type words.

Words are bad.

He ends up in one of the darker corners of the neighbourhood and in the middle of a fight between the Punisher and somebody the guy obviously deems punishable. He is showing up only rarely these days.

Paul hides behind a tree, praying the dog will stay quiet for once in his sorry life. Then a light bulb goes on over his head and gets out his phone and records the whole thing. Nobody's ever going to believe him.

Not without proof.

By some larger miracle the Punisher doesn't notice him and Paul and the dog make it home in one piece.

Days later, after the adrenaline wears off, he puts the video on Reddit and Tumblr.

 

  
-

 

 

She doesn't know why it's her who notices it first and not somebody else.

Meghan Foster is just browsing her Tumblr when she stumbles upon a video of the Punisher taking out some bad guys.

She has read the newspaper article about the incident, they were terrible men from what she gathered. In her opinion, they deserved what happened to them.

Meghan would never voice it out loud in front of her parents though. They think her too young and naive as it is.

Just as Punisher throws a hard punch, Meghan sees something glistening at his hand. She pauses the scene, replays the moment again and again. At first she thinks it's a knuckle duster, but she casts away the idea immediately again.

It's smaller, softer.

She's quite good at editing, so she gets out Photoshop and makes some gifs out of the bad material she's given.

Then she asks her few hundred followers about their opinion on it.

  
-

  
For days nothing happens.

 

  
-

 

  
And like a bomb, smoke and ash, dust and debris, it all explodes.

 

  
-

 

  
"You the one who always writes about the vigilantes, aren't you?" Bethany, the new intern asks her during a lunch break. Karen had been too lazy to walk anywhere and she had packed last night's leftovers anyway.

Karen nods.

The interns rarely ask about her usual articles, the ones she works the hardest for. They are always the ones most fascinated by the shiny and adventurous world of superheroes. They haven't experienced it firsthand, they haven't bled for it.

"Maybe you should write a piece about The Punisher's secret wife."

She almost chokes on her warmed up pasta.

"What?"

"The internet's going bonkers over some video of him a few weeks back. He's wearing a ring on his ring finger. And before you ask, he's never been seen with one before. So people are speculating, you know."

Karen nods once again, too taken aback to speak.

"Can you imagine having the guts to marry the Punisher?" Bethany asks with a loud laugh.

 

  
-

 

  
In his defence, he has the decency to look guilty about it.

The bouquet of white roses in his hands says just as much as the slightly pleading look in his dark eyes.

She slaps his shoulder anyway.

 

  
-

 

  
"K, there are rumours on the street about---,"

"I heard, Foggy."

"You know anything about it?"

"What if I did?"

"Well, I'd be pissed I didn't get to be your maid of honour."

"Can't you go pester Matt and Elektra?"

"What is it with the two of you and assassins anyway?"

Karen hangs up on him at that.

 

  
-

 

  
Trish sends her memes, teasing her mercilessly. The internet is having a field day with this. Some of them a genuinely funny, Karen admits to herself.

She forwards some to Frank as well. It's his fault after all, he might as well suffer through it with her together.

 

_i'll get a new phone number and not tell you_

 

_Rude_

 

  
-

 

  
It happened like this.

 

  
-

 

  
Only the soft glow of the bedside lamp and the lanterns on the street outside are enlightening the dark room.

Frank is kissing his way down her body, spending extra time at her breasts, her ribs, her navel, until he finally gets he wants to be. Karen shivers under his intent gaze and the feather-light touches of his finger tips.

At this point his finger prints must be tattooed to her skin.

It's a religious experience, having her naked before him, wanting him. It never stops to amaze him. He doesn't deserve this, so he enjoys it all the more.

"You plan on finishing this anytime tonight?"

"Patience is a virtue, ma'am."

He kisses the insides of her thighs, reverently, leaving hickeys along the way. His tongue licks at her entrance, his fingers working her clit, until she is gasping his name. It's never getting old, giving her pleasure just like this. 

The sight is burned inside his memory, worthy of an oil painting, except it's only meant for him. Frank's at loss, there are no words to describe her without leaving out an integral part. His chest isn't large enough to hold the emotion waging war inside his body.

He pulls himself back up to her, his larger body hovering over her delicate frame. He tucks back a few strands of her hair.

_"Marry me."_

It comes out all wrong, words tumbling out of his mouth. He wants to say so much more, put all the love he feels for her into words, but it all boils down to this.

It's taken him time to accept that maybe, just maybe, happiness could be part of his life once again. And he knows he wants her in his life.

He knows he might not survive until death do us part again, it hurts just all the more when this particular vow is kept in the worst of ways, but nowadays Frank's brave enough to try again.

Because of Karen.

For Karen.

"Frank---," she whispers. She wraps her hands around his face so gently, their foreheads touching now, their breaths mingling together. _Holding on with both hands._  

"I meant it," he breathes just the same. "If you want me. I don't have a ring or anything, but---"

She kisses him, like a wildfire burning bright. He rolls them over, Karen straddling his waist, both of them almost falling off the bed. 

"Yes," she breathes into his ear and it's like a choir of angels singing Hallelujah.

 

  
-

 

  
It's been a long time coming and it's a surprise all the same. It's hard-earned and much wanted. Neither of them explicitly need it for a happy future, but that doesn't stop Frank and Karen from wanting it just as much.

 

  
-

 

  
There are butterflies in her stomach, her ribcage. A restless tremor takes hold of her whole body, even in the quietness of scenery around them.

She is _nervous._

They got they marriage license 24 hours ago, as the law in the state New York required, also fake papers for Frank, but it hasn't felt real until now.

But it is very real.

With their hands linked together, wandering through the marble hallways to the right office. It feels bold and thrilling and warm. She throws a gaze at him, feeling the big bright stupid smile on her face.

"I'm not taking your last name."

"You could hyphenate."

"I don't think so Mr. Page."

He kisses her, though nobody has pronounced them anything officially yet. It doesn't matter. This isn't for the law, for their family, their friends.

It's for them.

Because they deserve it.

 

  
-

 

  
"Does it bother you?"

Karen's chopsticks hover over the bowl of rice. The look on Frank's face is difficult to decipher. She doesn't know what he's talking about, but she can guess. "You eating all my food? Sure, but I deal with it."

"Me basically announcing our marriage to the whole world."

"Nobody knows it's me."

Franks scratches the spot behind his ear, then rubs at the back of his neck. It's his tell, she has gathered over the years. Whenever he's uncomfortable.

"Not what I meant."

She abandons her food entirely, focusing all her attention on him. "I liked our secret. Because it belonged only to us. But it doesn't matter. I love you all the same."

Karen fiddles with the ring on the thin necklace around her throat. It falls right between her breasts, close to her heart. It seems fitting like this. The world around them, the humans of this city, they can have their opinions and their outlandish theories, but none of them come close to the truth. 

It doesn't matter, so it doesn't bother her. 

"It's always us. That's what matters."

He leans over to leave a kiss on her temple. It's all there has to be said.

 

  
-

 

  
There's a file on an USB stick, so password protected and encrypted even the NSA couldn't hack it. It's a story, the one that Bethany and half of New York would have loved to read, about the Punisher and his wife.

She'll never share it.

It's only ever meant for them.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Title: Afterlife - Ingrid Michaelson  
> Tumblr: qqueenwithoutacrown
> 
> Thank you for reading. Please let me know what you think about it.


End file.
